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Dendron (YC W21) Is Hiring
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How to Create an Editorial Calendar That Will Streamline Your Content Strategy
According to Bill Gates, “Content is King.” That was true in 1996, and it continues to be true today.
As consumers become savvier, content continues to play a vital role in educating and converting consumers.
However, not all marketers understand how to implement a content strategy correctly. When you don’t start with the basics, you could be making content production more complicated than necessary.
To be successful, your content plan must be actionable, and you need to publish content consistently.
That’s where an editorial calendar comes in.
We’re going to cover the basics, including how to create and manage your editorial calendar, and how it can help your content strategy grow
4 Reasons to Use an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar enables content publishers to plan, create, publish, and promote their content in an organized manner. Many bloggers and businesses use editorial or content calendars to streamline content production.
In many ways, an editorial calendar is a lifesaver for creatives and business owners. Whether you’re a blogger, freelance writer, business owner, or creative director at a marketing firm, an editorial content calendar can help you stay on track and keep you sane—while ensuring a consistent flow of content.
Others use an editorial calendar to improve focus, because an organized approach can also limit writer’s block and keep content evergreen.
There are other ways you can benefit from an editorial content calendar, including:
1. Better Organization and Delegation
With an editorial calendar, you can see articles that need writing at a glance. From there, you can delegate the articles to your writing team, ready for them to get to work. No more scrambling to send writers topics at the last minute or wondering if you’ll even get around to writing this month.
With a calendar, it’s all right in front of you.
Ultimately, this level of organization saves time, keeps the content coming, and ensures every member of your content creation team knows what they’re doing.
2. Improved Planning
The better you plan your articles, the better the writing tends to be. When you know what you want to write, you don’t waste time with last-minute research or trying to find the sources you need to support your article.
In fact, some consider planning to be more important than the content production itself. Planning content is essential for:
- Creating the kind of content most suited to your audience.
- Writing the in-depth content your audience wants—and needs
- Publishing exactly when and where your customers hang out.
3. Helps Achieve Your Goals
Your editorial calendar is part of your content strategy. Ideally, you’ve developed your content strategy around the goals you’re trying to achieve with your product, your blog, or your company overall.
An editorial content calendar assists in goal achievement by:
- Allowing you to meet critical milestones.
- Helping with promotional activities.
- Reaching new leads and making fresh conversions.
- Getting more newsletter sign-ups.
- Building awareness of your brand.
Whatever your goals are for your business, your editorial calendar has a vital role in allowing you to achieve them.
4. Sticking to Deadlines
According to Mark Twain, “deadlines are the greatest source of inspiration.”
However, that doesn’t mean you want to do a rush job.
To avoid rushing content creation, every team member needs to be clear on their deadlines to keep reaching your goals and your audience engaged.
Further, keeping up with these deadlines is especially important when you’re publishing new content that’s a part of your business strategy. For example, if you are publishing blogs to support a new launch or annual sale.
How to Create an Editorial Calendar
Don’t let the thought of creating an editorial calendar stress you out—I promise it’s not that complicated once you create a plan. This next section takes you through how to create an effective calendar, step-by-step. This is just an outline, so feel free to adjust these steps to meet the needs of your business.
1. Determine Which Tools to Use
Your first step is deciding which tools to use. This varies from team to team, and content managers may need a combination of tools for best results.
If you want free options for getting started, Google Docs, Excel, or Trello are popular choices. For paid tools, there are several worth considering, including:
- Airtable
- Asana
- Monday
- BrightPod
Airtable, Asana, and HubSpot offer free content calendar templates to get you started, and there are plenty of others available, too.
Whichever tool you use, make sure it meets everyone’s needs. As Buffer’s editorial director, Ash Read, told HubSpot:
“[your] editorial calendar should be a resource for your whole team, not just content creators.”
2. Create a Content Backlog
Next, you need to create a content backlog. This is just a list of content ideas for easy viewing and lets you track your ideas for posts.
You could use Google Sheets or Excel for this, or one of the free templates mentioned, like Asana.
Whichever you go with, your chosen tool should allow you to create a clear, organized list. Just remember, it’s OK to stray from your list. Not every idea will end up as an entire post, and sometimes changing your content strategy is essential for keeping up with new trends or thinking of a new angle.
Create your sheet, then start adding a few headings like:
- title
- assigned author
- project status
- publication date
Other headings you could use are:
- Special dates and anniversaries.
- Themes and distribution channels.
- Trending topics/new launches relevant to your niche.
- Seasonal content and key sales dates. For instance, Black Friday, where you may want to ramp up content production.
3. Develop Your Content Strategy
Don’t overthink your content strategy. There’s a simple way of making sure your content strategy covers all the bases, and as long as you keep these parts in mind, you won’t go wrong.
First, outline steps such as how much content you want to produce a month, what topics you want to cover, and your ideal customers.
Then add strategic steps, such as managing your existing content and goal tracking. These might include:
- Define your goals: For example, growing your mailing list or attracting new customers.
- Understand your customers: Which social media sites do your audience use? Which content types do they prefer/respond to? What are their pain points, and how can your products/services solve them?
- Analyze your competition: You can use a tool like Ubersuggest, which has a free and paid version to see which keywords competitors are targeting.
- Positioning: What makes your business unique, and how do you stand out in your marketplace? You could do this in a few ways, like specializing in a targeted niche or telling your brand’s story. Ask yourself how the content you’re creating can achieve this.
- Estimate your budget: How much is your content strategy going to cost you, and how can you maximize your ROI?
- Measure your KPIs so you know your content is getting results: For example, if you’re aiming to build brand awareness, an increase in shares and views will show you’re heading in the right direction.
4. Schedule the First Month
Many of us produce content at the last minute or create it whenever we have spare time. If you’re looking for a less stressful (and more effective) approach, schedule your content in advance.
A month is usually enough, but you could schedule up to six weeks. You can use Google Calendar for this.
Add each step of your process, and make sure to give yourself plenty of time. So, you might create a due date on the first Monday to write your outlines, then schedule one article a week to be written, two days for editing, set a publish date, then schedule it into your social media sharing calendar.
The process will vary based on how much content you produce and how many people are on your team, but I strongly recommend breaking each piece of content into more manageable steps.
5. Move Articles Into Production
When you’re in the full swing of producing content, it’s easy to let pieces slip through the cracks, especially if you have multiple people working on the project. Creating a Trello account can keep you on track.
The first step in using your Trello account for content production is to decide what stages each article will need to go through.
What you need is up to you, but here are some suggestions for your Trello cards:
- assign to writer
- writing in progress
- ready for edits
- ready for uploading and scheduling
Alternatively, you could make it more complex and add additional steps like:
- final edits
- SEO audits
- published
Then your Trello cards might look something like this:
6. Build Your Content Queue
If you’re just starting with an editorial calendar, you need to get a few articles ready for publication.
Choose a schedule that suits you, but a forward-looking schedule of 4-6 weeks works well for most teams.
That sounds like a lot of work, but you can approach the task in two ways. First, you could spend a few weeks writing content until you have a volume of work to publish. However, this method isn’t suitable for everyone, unless you’ve got a team of writers to help you.
Another way is to spend a few months creating extra content every day, which is doable for most content producers.
7. Continually Optimize Your Process
So far, we’ve covered how to get your content production off the ground. However, you can’t set it and forget it. Over time, you might find there are bottlenecks in your process or that certain tools don’t fit your needs. Make sure to check in with your team regularly to ensure the editorial process you’ve created is working for everyone.
Common areas to review include:
- your schedule and the tools you’re using
- the volume of content you’re storing
- the time between stages
- the metrics you track
Over time, you’ll get a better understanding of whether the tools you’re working at are suitable for your team and whether the amount of articles you’re publishing is helping your business grow.
FAQs About Editorial Calendars
Why do I need an editorial calendar?
An organized approach to content production reduces time and helps you publish better quality content. From ideation and writing to publishing and promotion, an editorial calendar helps streamline every part of the process.
Do I need paid tools to create an editorial calendar?
Not unless you want to. Free tools like Trello and Google Docs are fine, but there are also paid options like Asana available.
What headings should I include on an editorial calendar?
Not everyone’s calendar looks the same, but most marketers include titles, publication dates, and the article writer’s name. Once you’ve added in the most obvious headings, write in the titles that work for your specific needs.
What’s the difference between an editorial calendar and a content calendar?
These terms are often used interchangeably. However, an editorial calendar generally outlines each step of the process, while a content calendar usually covers one aspect—such as when posts are published or shared to social media.
Summary of Editorial Calendar Guide
An editorial content calendar is a must-have for any content marketer or small business looking to make the most of content production. It helps you stay focused on your goals and produce high-quality content consistently.
Although it sounds like a lot of work, setting up a calendar isn’t difficult and allows you to seamlessly produce evergreen content while making the most of seasonal trends.
How do you use an editorial calendar? Tell us below.
The Supreme Court Bolsters Voting Rights
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SEEKING WORK | Remote
Full Stack Engineer: Ruby on Rails, PHP Laravel, Javascript
I work to help teams to accomplish their objective through creating software suited for their need. I have been working with Human Capital Management System, to creating full-stack apps that may suit your needs.
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5 Resources to Build Your App Idea
Considering building an app? You’re in good company.
The mobile app industry is expected to be worth more than $407 billion (yes, with a B) by 2026.
Meanwhile, the average person has more than 80 apps on their phone. That represents a ton of opportunities for app builders.
However, if you think creating an app is an easy way to get rich, you are setting yourself up for failure. Building an app requires research, hard work, and a willingness to dive in and learn.
Luckily, there are tons of resources to get you started—including this guide. Below, I’ll walk you through how to build out your app idea and then share five resources to help you launch your app.
How to Build Out Your App Idea
Like any business, creating an app requires laying the groundwork before launch. Here’s a five-step guide for getting ready to launch your app, including how to do your research, ways to monetize your app, and what to include in your business plan.
Build an App Step 1: Do Market Research
Before you dive into creating your app, you first need to get a lay of the land. Who is your target audience? What other apps offer similar features or functionality? How does your app stand apart?
Start by creating a buyer persona map, which will help you understand who your audience is and what they want. Use this information to create a detailed sales plan, decide what features to include, and choose where to market your app.
Then, perform a competitive analysis to understand your competitors. The information you gain from this will be critical as you build and grow your app. Focus on what current apps do well and what they don’t. The areas where they fail can present opportunities for you to improve and take over part of their market.
For example, if your goal is to build an app that offers workout and diet recommendations, take the time to download similar apps and read their reviews. What features do people ask for, and what features do they dislike? Who is using these apps? How are they monetized?
Be thorough—you’ll use this information in the next few steps.
Build an App Step 2: Decide How to Monetize Your App
There are several ways to make money from an app. The right choice for your app likely depends on your industry, target audience, and the type of app you create. For example, games are often monetized by ads and in-app purchases, while dating apps generally charge a monthly subscription fee.
Consider each of the following monetization methods to decide which is right for your app:
- Ads: Create a free app and earn money by selling ads in your app. Duolingo uses this model, though they also offer a paid plan.
- In-app purchase: Provide a free app and then allow users to purchase add-ons, like Pokemon Go does.
- Freemium: Give users access to a limited plan for free and then charge them to access all the features, like the meditation app Mindfulness does.
- One-time payment: Charge a one-time fee to access the app. Just keep in mind you won’t have a continuing income stream for updates, redesigns, and marketing.
- Monthly subscription: Charge a small fee every month for access to the app. This helps you maintain a steady stream of income, making it easier to pay salaries and invest in marketing.
Many apps use multiple monetization methods. For example, you might offer a limited free plan and then charge a monthly subscription fee to access all features. You might even use ads to monetize the free plan and offer a paid plan that is ad-free.
There are pros and cons to each monetization method. Some users might be annoyed by too many ads or hate paying for subscription services. See what other apps in your industry do, but don’t be afraid to break the mold by trying out a different method.
Build an App Step 3: Create a Business Plan
Most people assume building an app is all about coding, but the real work actually starts long before you create your first line of code (or before you begin building it if you use an app builder).
After you get to know your audience and decide how to monetize your app, take the time to create a business plan. This plan should guide your first few years in business and keep you committed to your app’s core purpose.
According to the Small Business Administration, your business plan should include:
- Executive summary: A brief outline of your company, what you will offer, and basic information about your leadership team, location, and plans for growth.
- Company description: A detailed guide covering what problem your business will solve, who your app will serve, and what competitive advantages your app offers.
- Market analysis: A summary of your market research that covers what your app’s strengths are, trends you take advantage of, and how your app stacks up against others in the same industry.
- Structure and management: An explanation of who’s in charge of your business and how your company is structured. Are you creating a C corp or an LLC, or are you a sole proprietor? Include a list of key leaders, their CVs and resumes, and even an outline of the benefits each person brings to the table.
- Offering: A description of what your app does and how it benefits customers. Include plans for patent filings or copyright, if applicable.
- Market and sales plans: An outline of your marketing strategy and how it will adjust over time. Cover how you plan to attract and keep customers, the sales process, and where you’ll focus your marketing efforts.
- Financial projections: Information about your costs, where that money will come from, and prospective profits. Costs of creating an app may be low (especially using the app tools we’ll cover in the next section), but you’ll still need money for things like web hosting, paid ads, etc. Forecast sales for the first year, five years, and ten years, and make sure to explain how you reached those numbers and outline where funding will come from.
Build an App Step 4: Create the App
Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time to actually create your app. This might feel a little overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. You have three main options for building your app. Let’s explore the pros and cons of each one.
Code the App Yourself
If you are technologically savvy, you may be able to code the app yourself. Make sure you have a deep understanding of coding or the patience to learn.
Pros:
- cheap (it only costs your own time)
- full control over features, coding platforms, etc.
Cons:
- requires a deep understanding of coding
- time-consuming
Hire an App Builder
Hiring an app builder might be costly, but it could help you get the app to market faster than coding it yourself.
Pros:
- launch faster
- no need to learn coding languages
Cons:
- can be expensive
- less control over features
Use an App Building Tool
Remember when building a website required expensive programs and in-depth coding skills? Now you can build a website with just a few clicks. App building tools offer the same functionality for apps.
Pros:
- faster and easier than coding or hiring an app builder
- likely cheaper than hiring someone to build your app
- get to market faster
Cons:
- limited by the app builder’s functionality
- have to pay to use most (though they are typically affordable)
Build an App Step 5: Launch & Submit to App Stores
Once your app is built, you’ll need to test it before launch. Ask a few friends to download the app and tell you what you think. Consider using a mobile UX testing tool to see how users navigate your app and make adjustments before you launch.
Then, you’ll need to submit your app to app stores, which is where users will download it. The most popular app stores are Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Follow this guide to submit your app to the App Store and this one to submit to Google Play.
Don’t forget to optimize for app SEO! This will help you rank higher so people actually find your app.
5 Resources to Help You Build Your App
Creating an app is easier than ever, thanks in part to the variety of app tools that help you build and launch a mobile app. However, with so many options, it can be challenging to figure out which one to use.
Let’s review a few of the top app tools so you can find the right one for you.
iBuildApp
iBuildApp is a full-featured app builder that provides all the tools you need to build an app using its drag-and-drop functionality. Start with any one of their 1000+ templates, then drag and drop features to add video, images, text, and more.
This tool is ideal for building apps for e-commerce stores, education, healthcare, business, media, retail, and financial services. Brands such as the U.S. Navy, Whole Foods, SEGA, and Emory University have used this tool.
Price: Starts at $59.40 per month for one app.
Appy Pie AppMakr
Want to build an app but don’t have any coding experience? Appy Pie helps you build an app in just three steps. Choose from over 100 features, including GPS, in-app shopping, offline capabilities, and push notifications. They also offer analytics so you can measure app performance.
You can use it to create apps for dating sites, customer reward programs, chatbots, retail, restaurants, and more. They’ll even help you submit the app to app stores.
Appy Pie is used by brands like The Home Depot, Southwest, and Nike.
Price: Options start at $18 per month for an ad-free experience, and they also offer a free trial.
BuildFire
BuildFire is a full-featured app development tool that allows you to build an app with no coding. Use their templates and then customize your app with hundreds of features like push notifications, clocks, private portals, loyalty programs, checklists, forms, or media.
They also offer a white-label feature, which allows you to build and sell apps to clients.
Though pricier than other options, this app build tool offers a lot more tools and features, so it’s an ideal choice for building more detailed apps.
Price: Plans start at $159 per month, billed annually.
Usability Geek
Creating an app is just the first step—you also need to test the user experience. Usability Geek provides tools, resources, and UX testing guides to help your app succeed. Explore their UX courses and blog posts about usability to learn the skills you need to help your app succeed.
Offered courses cover a range of topics, including the Psychology of E-Commerce, How to Create a UX Portfolio, and Quantitative Research for UX. Some courses even offer certification.
Price: Usability Geek offers free blogs about usability testing as well as paid training courses that start at $16 per month.
GoodBarber
GoodBarber is an easy-to-use app build tool designed for both e-commerce and standard app building. Like many other app tools, it doesn’t require any coding knowledge.
This tool is ideal for building apps for local delivery, retail, grocery, e-commerce, news, business, and community. Features include adding payment options, push notifications, user authentication, geofencing marketing, videos, maps, calendars, and forms.
Price: Pricing starts at $25 per month for one app and includes SEO optimization, domain name, SSL security, 200 GB of storage, and unlimited pages.
They also offer reseller plans, which start at $200 per month.
Conclusion
With the help of app build tools, launching an app is easier than ever. With little to no coding knowledge, you can create, launch, and optimize your new app in just a few days.
However, building a successful app is about more than just dragging and dropping features. To be successful, take the time to create a business and marketing plan, research your target audience, and make a plan for funding your venture.
Have you built an app before? What app build tools were most helpful to you?
The post 5 Resources to Build Your App Idea appeared first on Neil Patel.
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For the Android position we’re looking for engineers passionate about system internals and performance that have experience with performance profiling and optimization. We’re using mainly Kotlin with some shared C++.
We’re a team of ex. Facebook, Twitter/Crashlytics, Airbnb and Algolia engineers with extensive experience from mobile platforms to devops. We’re very well funded by a few infrastructure-focused investors.
We’re looking for remote engineers out of North/South America or Europe and other matching timezones.
Trump Takes Zinc. Maybe You Should Too
Research suggests the mineral bolsters the immune system against Covid and other diseases.
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International Business– Chinese Newspaper
International Business– Chinese Newspaper
In December of 1984, International Business, a body organ of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade as well as additionally Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) was officially presented. It is the only reputable across the country daily in its location as well as likewise has in fact developed into one nowadays’s unique-styled documents being incredibly considerable both in your house as well as additionally abroad.
The International Business paper was made to help China understand the world as well as likewise vice versa. It was furthermore meant to unlock as well as additionally market Chinese-foreign economic involvement. It is China’s vital mass device providing to lead global career as well as likewise economic synergy throughout the country as well as likewise has really continuously looked for MOFTEC’s assistance for sustaining China’s economic in addition to occupation connections with worldwide countries.
The International Business paper of China furthermore launches requireds as well as likewise strategy documents given by MOFTEC along with review the country’s intend on opening to monetary partnership in addition to worldwide occupation. It holds welcomes to as well as additionally results of bidding procedure for export as well as additionally import appropriations, in addition to states most existing success in global occupation along with monetary involvement from throughout china.
This paper in addition devotes huge area to developments as well as additionally discourses on economic jobs, globally occupation, economic info around the globe, market quotes, as well as likewise new information on monetary investment opportunities. The paper furthermore replies to issues worrying China’s economic strategies, requireds in addition to regulations, along with worldwide career, dispersing understanding of economic treatments as well as likewise around the world career.
The International Business paper defines of Chinese Foreign Trade in addition to economic team effort organisation, supplying mentoring options worrying export as well as likewise import organisation, global monetary investment in China, in addition to importation modern-day innovation, making the paper a critical bridge in between worldwide solution circles along with the Chinese.
These crucial aspects as well as additionally the feature International Business paper plays in China, has really made it feasible for the paper to win the heart as well as likewise depend upon of a great deal of site visitors as well as likewise gradually impact a lot more people. Presently, it has nearly a million site visitors in China as well as likewise higher than one hundred thirty countries in addition to locations as customers. It is thought of an important summary to the Chinese market by the mass of global firms in China along with is the preliminary selection of resource for abroad organisation people preparing to buy the country.
The reputation of this paper has really disclosed a continuous increase among digital media in your location as well as additionally abroad with a variety of its documents, discussions, as well as additionally numerous other information being used by numerous other documents as well as likewise journals regularly as well as likewise some documents have in fact won across the country honors. With the improvement of China’s worldwide career in addition to monetary team effort, so has International Business paper enhanced in the program to enhancing its task as well as additionally services broadening in endurance.
Presently, International Business is the only Chinese paper that deals with worldwide business appearing 7 days a week in a four-page folio conversation online forum. It has in fact launched month-to-month English along with bimonthly Japanese variants to increase its target market abroad.
The International Business paper was created to help China identify the world in addition to the other way around. These vital aspects as well as additionally the feature International Business paper plays in China, has in fact made it feasible for the paper to win the heart as well as likewise count on fund of a large variety of audiences as well as likewise substantially influence much more people. It is thought about an essential review to the Chinese market by the mass of worldwide firms in China as well as likewise is the really initial option of resource for abroad solution people preparing to patronize the country.
The International Business paper was made to aid China understand the world as well as additionally the various other method around. It is China’s vital mass device supplying to lead global occupation as well as likewise monetary team effort throughout the country as well as additionally has in fact continuously looked for MOFTEC’s assistance for sustaining China’s economic as well as career partnerships with worldwide countries.
These vital elements as well as likewise the feature International Business paper plays in China, has in fact made it feasible for the paper to win the heart as well as additionally depend on of a whole lot of site visitors as well as additionally considerably impact also a lot more people. These important aspects as well as additionally the feature International Business paper plays in China, has in fact made it feasible for the paper to win the heart as well as likewise depend on fund of a large number of audiences as well as additionally considerably impact also extra people.
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